Farmers in Tangail have lost interest in paddy cultivation since they claim they are facing a loss of Tk 11,000 for farming every one bigha of land.
Due to scarcity of workers, high rates demanded by labourers and low price, IRRI, Boro paddy are left on the field to rot.
The farmers are now in a precarious situation.
Out of frustration, two farmers set fire to their crops to make their case. To protest the low price of paddy, farmers have held human chains and other programmes.
Farmers say that the labour cost is between Tk 450 to Tk 500 and tractor cost is Tk 1,800 to Tk 2,000. To plant seeds, the farmer needs eight persons and including the cost of food for the helpers, the overall expenditure is Tk 5,000.
Then workers are needed to hoe the land and the cut the paddy. The wages of a worker for cutting paddy goes up to Tk 800 to Tk 900.
From planting seeds to taking the paddy home, 30 workers are needed with a total cost of Tk 27,000.
The yield in per bigha is 26-28 mounds and with the current rate of Tk 500 to Tk 550 per mound, the price of 28 mounds is Tk 15,400.
“The workers needed to cut the paddy now demand Tk 1,000 while we are compelled to sell each mound for Tk 500. On top, the crop has been affected by Blast disease and we had to cut off more than half of the paddy, almost 56 percent,” a farmer laments.
"Since I incurred a loss of Tk 25,000, I set fire to the land," said the distressed farmer.
Farmers also complain against fertiliser from China, Australia, Indonesia and Saudia Arabia, saying that these have caused irreparable damage to crops.
Abdul Malek, one of the farmers who set fire to his field, says: “Even after offering Tk 1,000, I am not getting labourers; each mound is being sold for Tk 500, which means that for each mound sold, I am incurring a loss of Tk 500.”
Several fertiliser traders say that production was encouraging last year with the use of Jamuna fertiliser but the foreign fertilisers have not shown any positive impact and they are comparatively more expensive.
Deputy-director of Tangail district agriculture extension department, Abdur Razzak, adds: “The labour charge is high now while the selling price is low; if the farmers preserve the paddy and sell later, they will get better rates.”
This year, paddy was cultivated over 171,000 hectares of land, he informed.